Authors: Submit A Mystery!

5 Minute Mysteries is an innovative way to get your stories published, earn some credit and a little cash! Included in this site is a concept of scoring the solving of mysteries (the equivalent to showing your work in math class) combined with raking people long term. The mysteries are used for pleasure and also in an educational setting to help students develop better comprehension of stories.

Submission Guidelines

  1. Mysteries should be around 1200 words.
  2. Mysteries should be written for the sixth to eighth-grade reading level.
  3. Mysteries should include at least four clues and at least four suspects.

It is vital to our website functionality that you submit a list of suspects at the beginning of your mystery. When our users click on your story, a list of suspects appears. Next to the suspect is the choice of "innocent" or "guilty." Thus the need to identify at least four suspects.

Mystery Template

Section 1: Identify Suspects

Bob Jones
Seth
Aunt Joanne
Mailman
Landlord
DO NOT describe characters in this section, e.g. "Bob Jones, a lonely 58-year-old ex-con."

Section 2: Mystery Body At this point, DO NOT allow your characters to let the cat out of the bag: "Bob, it was you all along!" Based on the clues and suspects, the reader should play detective, and figure it out on his own. This section should end with something like, "I know who did it" at which point, the reader will have to solve the mystery.

Section 3: Identify the Clues and the Solution Now is the time to show how the mystery was solved. Also, make it easy for our administrators to identify clues, by listing them at the end of your story.

Ex: 1. Zach only remembered that it was the sixth dirt road past State Route 246. Zach is innocent.
2. "He just got back to America tonight after spending a week visiting his cousin in Italy!" Lester is innocent.

To submit a mystery, please send an inquiry to authors@5minutemystery.com and let us know of your interest.